JOB VACANCY SURVEY FOR 2015 RELEASED

Last year, private employers in Oregon were looking to fill about 48,000 jobs vacancies at any given time.

That’s according to information out on Monday from the Oregon Employment Department. Jessica Nelson from the department says the Job Vacancy Survey provides a snapshot of the labor market that job seekers face.

The 48,000 job vacancies in 2015 represent a slight increase from 45,000 in 2014. The increase between 2013 and 2014 was much larger, going up 40 percent from the 32,000 vacancies in 2013. Nelson says this smoothing out of the job vacancy trend is consistent with the general strength in Oregon’s economy. Unemployment rates last year were well below the long-term average for the state, and job growth has been stronger in the past two years, according to state data.

Most Oregon job vacancies were full-time and permanent. Less than one-quarter of the 2015 vacancies required education beyond high school. However, over half of the vacancies did require previous experience. Jessica Nelson says that employers continued to have difficulty filling more than half of their job vacancies as the economy expanded, many due to lack of applicants. The share reported “difficult to fill” was the highest yet in 2015, at 59 percent.

More information about job vacancies in Oregon can be found at www.qualityinfo.org in the job vacancy survey box on the Publications page.